Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Prose Cons, aka The Gang of Twenty-One.

Welcome to Prose&Cons, Edition#1, written by the Prose Cons, aka The Gang of Twenty-One. Prose&Cons will officially launch May 22, but for those of you chomping at the bit (my mother and several of her Canasta group) I thought I would write an introductory blog explaining who we are and what we hope to accomplish. And when I say We, I mean we: Prose&Cons is a team blog, written by the The Gang of Twenty-One.

Why should you follow the Prose Cons? Well, not following may result in a year's imprisonment in a Mongolian gulag. Aside from that, it's the writing, plain and simple. On a daily basis you will see the well-written word in many forms: essays, short stories, memoirs, book reviews, humorous anecdotes, and serialized fiction. Even the occasional poem. If it can be written, it will be featured on Prose&Cons.

Who is The Gang of Twenty-One? If you guessed a foursome of Chinese Revolutionaries multiplied by factor of 5.2, not quite, but I like the effort. An eightsome of United States Senators added to the cast of Oceans13? Sorry, no again. If, however, you guessed we are a collective (hint: Chinese Communist theme) of authors, literary agents, book reviewers, editors and publishers banded together for a common purpose, then you hit the nail on the head. The common purpose? I could just tell you, but it would make for a really short inaugural post--and besides, we're supposed to Show, Not Tell. So, by way of showing you who we are and what we are about, here are some of the other blog names we bandied about and voted on, because I think they are tell-ing.The Book Starts Here My personal favorite, although it finished a distant fourth in the voting. But it says who we are and what we do: We are authors, literary agents, publishers, book reviewers and editors--books start with us. We read them, write them, edit them, print and promulgate them, and review them. And we blog about them, on Prose&Cons. I am confident you will find the variety of perspectives interesting and informative.

Dog-EaredA long shot at post-time, Dog-Eared rallied furiously to place second. It's a reference to the folded down corner of a book, which looks like a dog ear. I liked it because The Prose Cons are readers, and Prose&Cons is a blog written by readers, for readers, the kind that fold down the corner of a book.The Write Stuff A last minute addition to the final vote, The Write Stuff finished third based on a play on one of my favorite movies, as well as a reference to what we do. We are writers--and we want to write for you. But Prose&Cons is not a glorified advertisement for our books, novels and magazines. We're here to Show, Not Tell. Prose&Cons was created with the idea that the best way to make our voices heard was to make our voices heard. As I told my fellow prose cons when I recruited them to the team blog: a well-written blog post showing off your voice and and writing style is the best way to gain fans. (Please don't make a liar out of me.)

WordNerds I love words. I always have, and I always will. I learned this from my father who would pace back and forth looking for the right word to communicate what he wanted to say. I can still see the satisfied smile on his face when he found it--the perfect word. I remember my brother trying to get him to use a lesser word on one occasion--I think he wanted my father to take him golfing--a word that got his point across despite not being the word. "Who cares?" my brother asked. (My brother is not a WordNerd). "I care," my father replied. Like my father, the Prose Cons are the kind of people that strive for that perfect word, who derive pleasure from the cadence of a well-written sentence. If you are that kind of person (Come on, you know you are!) Prose&Cons is the blog for you.

So, without further ado, here is the Gang of Twenty-One:

Hermione, The Chairman Mao of The Gang of Twenty-One

Peter Hogenkamp lives in beautiful central Vermont with his wife and four (no, that's not a misprint) children. Peter is a full-time family physician and author of The Jesuit thriller series. He is represented by the talented Liz Kracht of Kimberley Cameron & Associates, who is also a member of the Gang of Twenty-One, and the mahatma and guru of KlubKracht, her list of writers.Eliza Cross is the author of seven books
(including the bestselling 101 Things To Do With Bacon) who is working
on her second novel. She blogs at HappySimpleLiving.com and is the founder
of the bacon enthusiast society BENSA,
which—unlike Mensa—welcomes members of all intelligence levels.

Susan
Clayton-Goldner is a southern Oregon writer and a graduate of the
University of Arizona's Creative Writing Program. In addition to three
published novels, her works has appeared in numerous literary journals and
anthologies including Animals As Teachers and Healers, published by
Ballantine Books, Our Mothers/Ourselves, published by the Greenwoood
Publishing Group, The Hawaii Pacific Review--Best of a Decade, and New
Millennium Writings.Susan is also the author of A Question of Mortality, a book of poetry.

Lily Gardner lives in Portland with her husband, two corgis
and several thousand books. Her novel, A
Bitch Called Hope, is a noir mystery set on the rainy streets of Portland.
Her second Cooper noir: Betting Blind will be published by Diversion Books in
early 2015.

Tom Pitts received his education on the streets of San Francisco. He remains there, working, writing, and trying to survive. His new novel, Hustle, and his novella, Piggyback, are available from Snubnose Press.

Mia Thompson is the author of an internationally bestselling New Adult Thriller series. Her first two novels, Stalking Sapphire and Silencing Sapphire, were published by Diversion Books in 2013.

Joe Clifford is editor for Gutter Books, and the author of three books: Choice Cuts, Wake the Undertaker, and Junkie Love. His latest mystery, LAMENTATION, is out October, 2014.

Sue Coletta is a crime
writer. She has written two novels, TIMBER POINT
(edge-of-your-seat thriller) and A STRANGLED ROSE (suspense/mystery),
and is currently working on the sequel to TIMBER POINT, entitled DANCING
IN THE SHADOWS, and book three in the series, entitled MAD
RUSH.Leigh
Anne Jasheway has written humor books for the past twenty years,
although she still claims to be 27. She has 21 published books, has had
columns published in over two dozen anthologies, and has been a regular
humor columnist for publications such as the LA Times, Funny Times,
Family Circle, and the Register-Guard.Garrett Calcaterra is the author of Dreamwielder, The Roads to Baldairn Motte, and Umbral Visions, as well as numerous spec-fiction short stories. When not writing, he enjoys hiking with his two dogs and quaffing craft beer.Jim Satterfield was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Colorado, and currently
works for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. He has published two
novels, The River's Song and Saving Laura.Tj
Turner has been writing since he was eight, although just last year he
reluctantly traded in his crayons for a keyboard. His first novel,
Lincoln’s Bodyguard, is due out in April 2015 from Oceanview Publishing.Art
Kerns lives in Arizona after spending most of his intelligence community
career in the Washington, DC area. His debut espionage thriller THE
RIVIERA CONTRACT was published In March 2013 and the first sequel, THE
AFRICAN CONTRACT, in May 2014.Dr. Suzana E. Flores is a clinical psychologist and author of an
upcoming book, Facehooked - due out later this summer through Reputation
Books. In her book, Dr. Flores addresses how Facebook, and other social
media, affects on our identity, emotions, relationships and our lives.Jan Moran is an author for St. Martin’s
Press (Scent of Triumph, 2015), and co-founded
RichIdeas.co, a site for authors and entrepreneurs. In a past life, she
founded Scentsa, sold it to Sephora, and wrote a series of bestselling
guides to perfume, Fabulous
Fragrances. Helen Hanson is a geeky
thriller author, former corporate droness, Redwood Curtain exile,
red-wine sipper, hacky sack duffer, unrepentant misfit, & seed
patron to avian traveler.Conrad Tuerk is an English teacher, novelist and poet living in Rutland, VT.

Peter Huntoon, Vermont Artist. Celebrating and sharing the beauty of Vermont…one painting at a time.

Robert Tucker is the founder of ReadWave, the site to share your three-minute story.

Thank you for viewing; we hope to see you back on May 22, 2014, and daily after that. And don't be shy about telling your friends or sharing the link on Twitter, Reddit, FaceBook, StumbleUpon or your favorite SocialMedia.

Peter Hogenkamp is a physician and author living in Rutland, Vermont. Peter's writing credits include ABSOLUTION, the first book of The Jesuit thriller series; THE LAZARUS MANUSCRIPT, a stand-alone medical thriller; and The Intern, a serialized novel based loosely on Peter's internship, published bi-weekly on #Wattpad. Peter can be found on his Author Website as well as his personal blog, PeterHogenkampWrites, where he writes about most anything. Peter is the founder and editor of Prose&Cons, the literary blog for readers and writers written by authors, editors, agents, publishers and poets; a frequent contributor and reviewer at ReadWave; the founder and moderator of groups on Facebook (The Library), Google+ (Fiction Writers Anonymous); and the chief of two tribes on Triberr, The Big Thrilland Fiction Writers.Peter tweets--against the wishes of his wife and four children--at @phogenkampvt and @theprosecons. Peter isHe can be reached at peter@peterhogenkamp.com or through his literary agent (Liz Kracht of Kimberely Cameron & Associates) at liz@kimberleycameron.com.